If you feel that you are in over your head and you need advice, you are not alone.

Experts say that the typical family spends an estimated 90% or more of their disposable income on paying debts. In America alone, household debts stand at approximately $6.7 trillion dollars.

Did you know that if you have just $11,000 in credit card debts and you only make the minimum payments at 24% interest that it will take you 22 years and $47,000 in interest to pay it off? That is amazing - and frightening, yet more and more people are falling further and further into financial trouble.

It is easy to find a debt elimination program. Finding reliable, useful debt elimination advice is a whole other story. As more and more people are falling further and further into financial trouble, some companies are making big bucks but doing little to help.

There are, however, steps that you can take to break free of your bills and get rid of it completely. All it takes is a little perseverance and discipline. This is debt elimination advice that you can use.

If you are current (NOT in collections). If your payments are current and your accounts have not been turned over to collections yet, there are some things that you can do to avoid collections.

Debt Elimination Advice and Tips

1. List all of your credit card payments and loan payments.

Create a personal budget worksheet to show all of your bills. Start with the account that has the highest interest rate in the first row, the second highest interest rate in the second row and so on. Also list the minimum payments as well as the balances. Add all of the minimum monthly payments in a column.

2. Determine your monthly expenses.

Add up your rent/mortgage payment, your utilities, food, phone, insurance, fuel and other expenses. Make a family budget worksheet that reflects these expenses and make sure that you arrive at a clear total.

3. Decide on your monthly income and how much you have to put toward paying off your debt.

If you have a fixed monthly income, it is easy to determine this. However, if you work on an hourly wage with varied hours, this may present more of a challenge. Average your monthly income over three to six months and use that figure in your budget.

From this figure, subtract the total from step two and then subtract the total from step one. The money that is left is how much you have each month to put toward paying off your accounts.

4. Each month, make the minimum monthly payments on all of your bills except for the account that is first on the list.

For that account, pay the total that you got from step three. That is, you are putting extra money toward that bill to clear it quickly.

Do this each month until that bill is paid off, then move on to the next bill. When you pay that one off, move to the next and keep doing this until all of your debts are paid off.

5. If you are in collections.

If your accounts are already in collections, then the debt advice is a little different. Now your accounts are considered delinquent. You still do steps one, two and three, but from there it is different.

6. The total that you got from step three is the total that you can put toward your debt elimination.

Take a look at your bills and begin contacting collectors. If you can record the calls, you can contact them by phone. If you are unable to record the call, then you really should do it all in writing.

Negotiate a settlement with the collector. You want to offer them half of the pay-off at the most, but leave a little room for negotiating. Don't be afraid to say, - No deal when negotiating credit card debt.

Use the amount from step three to determine

a) which debt to negotiate a payoff first and

b) how much you can offer in the negotiation.

In the meantime, continue making your minimum payments on your other debts. Once you have paid off one bill, move on to the next and begin negotiations. Continue in this manner until you all of your bills are gone.

Debt Elimination Advice: It takes time and discipline to accomplish this, but it can be done. Take control of your debt, take ownership of it, and soon you will be debtfree.

The most important thing you can do to take control of your debts and get your future back on track is to do something. Take action. Starting Today, you will have the debt elimination knowledge and power in your hands to easily change your life financially!